When the System Fails Twice: Speaking Up, Being Silenced, and Finding Power Again

In this raw, deeply honest follow-up to Episode 63, I share more of the untold story — the messy middle — of what happened after I first spoke up about my experience with professional harm and systemic failure.

What unfolds is a journey of gaslighting, bureaucratic stonewalling, and a complaint system that not only dismissed the truth — but later turned on me. From regulatory bodies and beyond, I walk you through what it’s like to speak out in a system designed to protect, but that too often silences the very people it claims to serve.

This episode is about:

• 💔 The toll of being dismissed, disbelieved, and re-traumatized
• 🧠 Navigating trauma within a bureaucratic system
• 🔥 The moment I chose not to wait for justice, but to reclaim my power
• 💡 The path forward — from victim to voice, from survival to post-traumatic growth

Whether you've experienced systemic harm in healthcare, mental health, or legal institutions — or supported others who have — this episode is for you.

🎧 Tune in to hear:

• The moment that broke me
• The silence that screamed louder than words
• The cost of speaking up
• And the choice I’m making now — to lead, to advocate, and to help others heal

👉 Be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook for behind-the-scenes of what comes next, including my travels, healing in real time, and sharing more about the post-traumatic growth that’s shaping my life and work.

💌 Loved this episode? Please subscribe, share, and leave a review — your support helps this message reach those who need it most.

It’s raw. It’s vulnerable. And it’s something so many of us can relate to — the re-trauma that happens when we turn to the system for support… and find more harm.

I’m not sharing this for sympathy. I’m sharing it because it’s time we stop being silent about the systems that silence us.

And now… I’m choosing something different:
 ✨ To heal out loud.
✨ To walk my talk.
✨ To show you, in real time, what post-traumatic growth can truly look like.

That means I’ll be taking a month off to travel through Europe, shedding more of the old and creating space for the new. Not just personally — but professionally, creatively, spiritually.

🌿 If you want to follow the journey, I’ll be sharing it all — raw, real, and unfiltered — on:

• Instagram 
• Facebook 

Thank you — for witnessing this, for walking beside me, and for believing in the power of healing, even when it’s messy.

With deep love and gratitude,
 Dr. Natalie Green

P.S. If this episode resonates with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. You never know the power of a story… until it helps someone else rise.

If this episode resonates with you then I'd love for you to hit SUBSCRIBE so you can keep updated with each new episode as soon as it's released and we'd be most grateful if you would give us a RATING as well. You can also find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drnatgreen/ or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrNatalieGreen

Intro and Outro music: Inspired Ambient by Playsound.

Disclaimer: This podcast is intended for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be deemed or treated as psychological treatment or to replace the need for psychological treatment.

Transcript

Dr Nat Green: 0:01

Welcome to the Growing Tall Poppies Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Nat Green, and I'm so excited to have you join me as we discuss what it means to navigate your way through post-traumatic growth and not just survive, but to thrive after trauma. Through our podcast, we will explore ways for you to create a life filled with greater purpose, self-awareness, and a deep inner peace. Through integrating the many years of knowledge and professional experience, as well as the wisdom of those who have experienced trauma firsthand. We'll combine psychology accelerated approaches. Coaching and personal experience to assist you, to learn, to grow and to thrive. I hope to empower you to create deeper awareness and understanding and stronger connections with yourself and with others, whilst also paving the way for those who have experienced trauma and adversity to reduce their suffering and become the very best versions of themselves. In order to thrive. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. Welcome back to Growing Tall Poppies. Thank you so much for continuing to listen in and to be a part of our community. Today I am gonna go a little bit deeper. And become a bit more vulnerable and share more of the real story and the impact of systemic harm for me. And I know from all your beautiful messages of support that many of you have also shared similar experiences. So I'm gonna delve deeper. From where I left off in that episode 63 around my own story, it all started when I saw another professional who I was to see for treatment after my previous disastrous appointment. When I was asked about the previous review, I burst into tears, seemingly out of nowhere, just came out of the blue, and I thought, oh. That is not okay. This meant I had to actually acknowledge and speak of what had happened. It was raw and confronting and to be honest, made it feel all the more real. I've been trying my best for such a long time to pretend it hadn't happened, or to ignore it and hope it would go away. We all know how that usually turns out without going too deep and revealing too much, let it suffice to say that I was encouraged to speak up to make a complaint to the relevant association about what had occurred, and I did that in good faith knowing that I always. Do that for my clients, offering them a path where they are able to speak up if they're not happy with something that's happened to them. That actually took me another 12 months to get up the courage to do that. I knew in my heart what had happened and I still questioned myself. Second guessed For what purpose it had been done, started to wonder if it had even happened or whether I was overreacting. Yet I knew deep down, and let's be honest, not too deep that what had happened was not right and certainly not necessary, and I made my decision to proceed with the complaint. And as a health professional, I weighed things up for so long as I knew the ramifications of making a complaint for a professional and the impact this could have. So I knew I had to be absolutely certain and I was, I followed due process and did exactly as I was instructed. Little did I know what that would mean. The cost to me of no longer staying silent, the complaint was made in a system supposed to protect people. I was informed that the person would get a copy of my complaint in full, so that definitely impacted the depth and the detail of what I included. I gave enough information that I felt should have meant a follow up email or contact with me to make further inquiries to listen to my story of what had really happened. From my perspective, yet sadly that never happened, and this commenced. this Systemic crap. The system's token, six monthly letters telling me very little and that the person had been brought before them and counseled the hell did that mean? And that this process is very good for the professionals in providing them guidance and suggestions to improve their practice. Really, then there were crickets. The silence was deafening. Then ultimately, two years down the track, it was another token letter. Again, very dismissive of the entire situation, and I finally broke. I was sick, not being heard. I rang the contact person on the bottom of the letter, and when I asked for further information, I was stonewalled and told I could not be provided with any further information that it had been investigated, and I would have been advised of such in the beginning. This was one of my turning points and a breaking point all in one. I was patronized beyond belief and spoken down to about, oh, you still sound upset. To which point, it was like a red flag to a bull and I lost it. I recall swearing at the person on the other end of the phone. Not my finest moment, but. In line with the reaction, which I felt was justified. And I said, well, you'd be upset too if you'd been sexually assaulted. To which point I was met with silence. Absolute silence. The silence was deafening, and I sat in my pain again, complete silence, and then suddenly the person's tone changed. Oh. Perhaps you'd like to submit a formal complaint about this. Oh my God, are you kidding? To which point I responded that this was exactly what I had done and it had gotten me nowhere. I ended up hanging up. I was so exasperated with a system that I felt was set up to protect, yet it was also

8:24

doing significant harm. They hadn't listened,

Dr Nat Green: 8:29

I felt ignored, dismissed, and as a fellow professional, I was devastated by the lack of compassion and transparency with a process from a complaints perspective. And I also know from being on the other side, having seen colleagues over the years go through complaints, processes, that they're grueling, they're awful, and they take significant toll on the professional. And that there are unfortunately, often vexatious complaints that are made, which caused significant distress to the practitioner. And these are dreadfully distressing and difficult. But I also knew, however, that I had not made the complaint lightly, and I expected it to be taken seriously and for this to have been a factor in consideration when reviewing the documents. And this never happened, and it was minimized and dismissed. After my phone call, things did start to progress thankfully. So whilst it didn't feel like my finest moment, my speaking up did start to get some traction and further investigations commenced. And thankfully the overseeing complaints body took over and things began to progress, and they actually began to see it for what it was. And what had happened, and I really shouldn't be surprised, but then came the next bureaucratic bungle systems set up from a patriarchal system. Then became involved and again, the issues were minimized and stonewalled and things stalled again. Then there were excuses and more forms of systemic abuse and more systemic bungles than if I revealed them. Gee, you'll be completely mind blown and feel like it couldn't possibly be true yet it is. Then the best one yet happened last year when the very person I had made a complaint about, put in a formal complaint about me. And worse still, the body didn't pick this up and registered as a complaint about me, and this goes on my record. And to top it all off, they didn't advise me until afterwards. Leaving me no room to even comment. There was no room for recourse. It was just accepted, allowed to proceed without any context Let that one sink in. This was probably one of the most challenging moments. Again, I felt shattered as a result of having experienced further system abuse and significant harm, and suffered significant distress, and sat with that for a while, so distressed beside myself. Then the rising anger and sense of injustice raised its head again, as it does for me. It came up within me and I found my voice. I simply couldn't stay silent again as a result of a system that had yet again failed me and undoubtedly failed many, many others. It was time. So I got on that phone again to the head of legal in the complaints body. I spoke up and she listened and arranged an in-person meeting. So down I went to their head office and we had a meeting where I was able to verbalize all my concerns at the entire process from start to current, and they appeared to listen. They finally left me feeling acknowledged and somewhat validated, and we even spoke about legislative changes that are being recommended to their systems. As a result of my case and my story, they finally felt like I could do something positive within this shambles of a system. Then a year went by more silence. More systemic failures became evident again. I reached out to my contact in the system again. I was acknowledged, and again, I heard, yes, it's a system where change moves extremely slowly, and my frustration raised its head again. And then I was informed about an outcome that is far less than satisfactory. There's no further action that can be taken now and the matter is finished now. I have two choices. I can continue to place my energy in this direction and be completely zapped of energy and life for a sense of validation and justice that deep down I know will never eventuate as a system has so much red tape and even when you are believed you are placated. Patronized and unlikely to make any real inroads. Or I can use my energy in creating processes that may not change the system, but assist others in navigating this path and managing the undoubted distress caused by such systems. So my mission. To continue to support the people just like you who have been impacted and damaged by these systems, to help you know that whilst you may not feel heard, you have a choice and you can do the healing regardless. I realized that while I had been waiting for the system to fix what had happened, I was giving it power over my healing. So I'm not waiting for an apology that will never come. I'm not replaying conversations, hoping for a different ending. I'm not silencing myself to protect the comfort of those and systems who've harmed me. So I'm choosing option two. And I'm also choosing to take the matter as high as I can to the state and federal ministers. Whilst I understand there may be little that can change, I'm still deeply passionate about advocating for systemic change and feel as though I need to share my story and provide suggestions as to how changes can be made at a systemic level. So others are not experiencing what I have. Systemic change doesn't happen unless someone takes a stand and provides suggestions and options for improvements based on professional and lived experiences. So I'm okay to embrace my empowered trailblazer and authentic warrior archetypes and lead the way to create the change I wish to see in the world. Nothing changes. If nothing changes, and if I remain silent. I'm not expecting that of you. What I can offer to you is that you stay as part of this community and I share my framework, my support with you to help you navigate. The harm that's being done, and to go from a place of merely surviving to thriving. Again, thank you so much for listening, for sharing your special precious time with me and for allowing me to share my story and for your beautiful messages of love and support. I thank you again from the bottom of my heart. And I'm so grateful that you're a part of this community, so continue to rise, stand tall, and be the beautiful, tall poppy that you are always destined to be. Bye for now. thank you for joining me in this episode of Growing Tall Poppies. It is my deepest hope that today's episode may have inspired and empowered you to step fully into your post-traumatic growth, so that you can have absolute clarity around who you are, what matters the most to you, and to assist you to release your negative emotions. And regulate your nervous system so you can fully thrive. New episodes are published every Tuesday, and I hope you'll continue to join us as we explore both the strategies and the personal qualities required to fully live a life of post-traumatic growth and to thrive. So if it feels aligned to you and really resonates, then I invite you to hit subscribe and it would mean the world to us. If you could share this episode with others who you feel may benefit too, you may also find me on Instagram at Growing Tall Poppies and Facebook, Dr. Natalie Green. Remember, every moment is an opportunity to look for the lessons and to learn and increase your ability to live the life you desire and deserve. So for now, stay connected. Stay inspired. Stand tall like the tall poppy you are, and keep shining your light brightly in the world. Bye for.